Taiwan to introduce emissions trading system

On 23 February 2017, the Taiwanese Government approved its Climate Change Action Guidelines, which lays out ten general principles on how to achieve Taiwan’s climate mitigation and adaptation targets. The third principle calls for the implementation of a cap-and-trade system. Energy, industry, agriculture and transport ministries were tasked to draft detailed plans on how to achieve the goals laid out in the guidelines. Taiwan’s commitment to develop an ETS was also reiterated by the Taiwanese Environmental Protection Agency (TEPA) on 17 March 2017.

The guidelines also confirm Taiwan’s objective to halve its GHG emissions by 2050 compared to 2005 emissions levels, a goal Taiwan had set in July 2015 in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction and Management Act. Currently, the TEPA is working on policies to reach this goal, including different ETS design options and identifying relevant factors for cap setting. It has also established mandatory emissions reporting for entities with annual emissions above 25,000 tCO2e from certain sectors. Reporting has been ongoing since 2013. However, no timeline for the implementation of the ETS has been set.

As of 2013, Taiwan’s emissions were 284.5 MtCO2e, with the majority of its emissions stemming from the power sector. In addition to its ETS, Taiwan is also working on a Sustainable Energy Policy to decrease its energy intensity by 50% until 2025 and to increase the share of low-carbon energy in the electricity generation sector from 40 to 55% by the same date.